by Rev. Bob Johnson
Many times Jesus would say as he went about healing, "Your faith has made you well!" Now on the surface this sounds like all you have to do is have faith and you will automatically be well. We have to remember that faith actually is trust. When I ask confirmation students what they trust in I get different answers than when I ask, "what do you have faith in." So have the question clearly in your mind, "What, or who, do I trust?" Who or what you trust is the corner stone of your health and wholeness.
If your child, your spouse, or a good friend would suddenly say, "I hate you and I don't want you around me," the experience is not just emotional, it involves our whole being. Mental health researchers are telling us that such things as anxiety, depression, and other problems involve our whole person, including our relationships, our faith, our physical state, and even our eating habits. Jesus recognized this when he healed the paralytic (Mark 2:1-12)-he said, "Your sins are forgiven." Jesus went beyond the paralytic's external ills to the man's deeper needs. Jesus understood that the body and the spirit(soul) are a unity. In the words of Dr. Siirala, "...the body always expresses the soul, in illness as much as in health."
Friends who are truly friends are invaluable. Through your friends (which can include any person you trust), God's energy flows into you. We can maximize our reception of the love (God's energy) flowing into us if we acknowledge that there is need for us to renew our energy supply. Think of your energy supply as you might think of a bank account. You can't take out more than is there, so there is need for deposits. When someone says, "I love you" they are making a "deposit" in your energy account. When you believe that God has forgiven you your sins, a deposit of energy is being made.
Finally, you may know people who act like parasites on your energy system. They are always looking for a deposit of love from you, but never giving it back. If our "suppliers" of energy feel that you are a drain on them, they will soon avoid you.
Forgiveness is one sure way of getting out of debt. Remember the Lord's Prayer? Forgive us our trespasses (debts) as we forgive those who trespass against us. The word AS determines the measure of energy we get. Remember the little statement, "...the measure you give is the measure you get." Remember that you can never finish paying the debt of love you owe/I owe. (Romans 8:10) Friendships that are true are like having a healer present all of the time, for in friendship, love is is given and shared.
How can we receive the healing we all need from God? Does our spiritual health really make a difference in our physical health? See Part 4 - July 15.